Digital Printing, including Print-on-Demand, continues to increase the options available for publishers who want to better manage inventory and make more effective decisions about when and how they print. Workshop participants can expect to learn the current structure of the digital printing marketplace as well as key participants in each segment.

Participants will also be provided a four-part business model to help determine when digital printing makes sense for a publisher or a given title. Those registering for this session are invited to bring their own title data (print quantities, conventional costs, inventory expense and demand profiles) to use in an interactive Excel model that identifies the when print-on-demand technology makes economic sense for a title.

NOTE: Thank you in advance for attending the print-on-demand seminar next Monday. The presenters, Brian O’Leary and Ashley Gordon, plan to demonstrate a working model that can help you determine when POD is an effective option for your books. If you’re interested in contributing your own examples, they will be happy to use them. The three critical data points to bring to the session are: traditional printing cost (paper, printing and binding); print run; and page count for the title. You can also modify assumptions about projected annual demand, shrinkage (as a percentage of the total press run), storage costs (per pallet, per month) and your own cost of capital, if desired.

Brian O’Leary

Magellan Media

Brian O’Leary is founder and principal of Magellan Media, a management consulting firm that works with publishers seeking support in content operations, benchmarking and financial analysis.

O’Leary writes extensively about issues affecting the publishing industry. With Hugh McGuire, he is editing “Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto”, a collection of forward-looking essays on publishing that is being published in three parts by O’Reilly Media.

O’Leary is also the author of a research report on the impact of free content and digital piracy on paid book sales, as well as the editor and primary contributor for a study of the use of XML in book publishing. Both reports were published by O’Reilly Media in 2009.

Before becoming a consultant, O’Leary served as senior VP and associate publisher with Hammond Inc., an internationally recognized geographic reference publisher. Responsible for database development, editorial content, production, and operations, he restructured editorial operations to benefit from the firm’s prior technology investments.

O’Leary came to Hammond after a 12-year career overseeing production and distribution operations at several of Time Inc.’s weekly magazines. He earned an A.B. in chemistry from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Ashley Gordon

Mockingbird Publishing

Ashley Gordon, publisher at independent press Mockingbird Publishing, is a fifteen-year veteran of digital printing. She was most recently Vice President of Business Development at SharedBook, a leading provider of personalized and custom publishing services. She came to print-on-demand as Director of Publisher Services for Sprout, an early in-store POD company, followed by several years at Lightning Source as a Senior Account Manager and Director of Channel Development. Other positions in and around the industry include literary press editor, contributing writer to various publications, professor of English and composition, and executive board member of the Alabama Center for the Book. She graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in English from Auburn University Montgomery.